The situation is going from bad to worse for the Congress party across India. After being badly defeated in the recent parliamentary election, the party is facing a major existential crisis. Factional fights have erupted in states like Rajasthan and Punjab. The bitter feud between leaders like Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and his deputy Sachin Pilot in Rajasthan, and between CM Amarinder Singh and cricketer-turned-politician Navjot Singh Sidhu in Punjab have intensified in the last few days. The factional fights are raging on publicly, and it seems like no one is interested in resolving the issues.
Further, the party lost 12 of its MLAs to the ruling TRS in Telangana on Thursday. The grand old party is dramatically imploding in front of the nation. To make matters worse, there is still no clarity over Congress president Rahul Gandhi’s resignation offer. He offered to resign, owning moral responsibility for the party’s defeat, but party leaders refused to accept it. The drama of resignation is yet to come to a conclusion. The Congress party and its leaders should understand that, being the largest opposition party, they have a very important role to play. In a democracy the role of the opposition is very critical. One of the main reasons for the Congress’ failure in this year’s elections was its failure to connect with the people. By failing to play the role of a vibrant opposition, the Congress is further eroding its space. If it wants to make a comeback to power, the party will have to really rethink and start working from the ground level. The infighting and the lack of clarity on leadership will only cause more harm to the party. This may allow other parties to occupy the space of the opposition being vacated by the Congress. Such a situation will lead to the complete decimation of the party from the political scene of the country.